when you think of things that make you laugh do you ever think about the things that you shouldn't be laughing at have you ever seen a story in the news about somebody who's made a joke and a lot of people got upset at them and because you're not allowed to make jokes about that that person is now no longer able to you know make any jokes or do anything anywhere would it be confronting to you though if I suggested that it is kind of important that we're able to laugh about everything yeah even t
hat thing oh I've certainly been confronted by that idea but I feel a lot better about it after the conversation that I had with Daniel SLO he is one of the world's most acclaimed accomplished uh and truly Visionary stand-up comedians he's my guest on the show today I can't wait for you to hear it to be challenged by it and perhaps like me get your mind Changed by it because he says some stuff in this conversation that really changed the way I feel about things if you don't know who Daniel Sloss
is welcome your world is about to change for the better Daniel SLO is an astonishingly successful stand-up comic from Scotland some of his Netflix shows which are remarkable have really kind of changed what standup is essentially X is the absolute breakout it was uh recorded in Sydney at the enmore theater there some guys upstairs fixing a cupboard that's the noise of cupboard fixing in my house so yeah that show was recorded at the endore theater in Sydney and it was the first ever comedy spec
ial out of the UK to receive a major theatrical release slos has made an astounding show as well it's called jigsaw we touch on that a little bit in this conversation but it's in jigsaw that uh he talks all about love and in that show um sloth he actually talks about this it it led to a number of breakups after people watched it because he talks about if you're not ENT your partner in this particular way he should probably break up and he put it in such a way that was so profound he stopped coun
ting when a quarter of a million people had got in touch with him and told him that they' broken up with their partner so yeah he's helped a lot of people not have a shitty relationship which is pretty great Daniel Sloss has recently become a dad it was a say I'm the kind of dad that doesn't fix Ikea wardrobes so that's why there's some guys upstairs at my house doing that right now Daniel SLO has recently become a dad and it was really lovely to have a conversation with him about fatherhood to
discuss comedy with him uh to talk about the nature of hard work and creativity and look if you're not a standup if you're never going to be a standup or you're never ever going to want to walk on stage what you're about to hear Daniel talk about what he says about dedication and getting great at whatever it is that you do it's absolutely worth it this is one of the best conversations I've ever had on this show and and it's possibly going to contain some of the best guidance I've ever heard abou
t excellence and Mastery at whatever it is that you're pursuing whether you know whatever it is in your life that you're in into you're going to hear some stuff in this that'll inspire you to want to get as good as you possibly can at it it's brilliant enjoy this conversation with [Music] SLO our country and Daylight Saving uh a Pricks and um I grew up I grew up in Queens L where there is no daylight saving and I'm still trying to get used to it um so I'm sorry about the other day it's the madde
st [ __ ] thing in the world man I have no idea why in this not to sound so much like a [ __ ] younger person but the [ __ ] just explained to the cows that it's darker Daniel there's two people who don't give a [ __ ] about doll savings farmers and toddlers they couldn't give a [ __ ] [ __ ] wolf was up the other morning like dad can I watch this I'm like [ __ ] [ __ ] he doesn't give a [ __ ] how old your kids uh we've got two one's 19 one's three and a half they came down for the weekend then
from Sydney they came down to hang out and go to the F1 and stuff and oh man I was was got I am a terrible F1 fan because I only got into F1 two years ago thanks to dri to survive means you're an excellent and passionate F1 fan we got away from G yeah I've been watching in every race this season and I just feel like I'm joining in at the most boring time because of Red Bull's dominance and the fact that Max for star is clearly just a [ __ ] robot but he's a great baddy this is what I love becau
se he's not like a magnanimous winner no like he's he's such a great baddy like it's almost star warsan and how much of a baddy he is he's such a great baty that when his teammate wins his own father is just like and [ __ ] you yeah and like there's a shot as everyone's losing their mind that his teammate has won and his dad there's this footage of his dad in the pitch just like no yeah [ __ ] I did not get up and buy a [ __ ] go-kart at 11: and drive this [ __ ] all over Europe for this yeah [
__ ] you I like the interviews where Max first stord is like driving as home my father told me he loved me and it's like oh man if only he had just told you he loved you like you know it doesn't have to be one or the other you could drive well and at the end of the race your dad's allone to say I love you I I spent a fair bit of time in the Netherlands and knowing dues like vppa makes a lot more sense yeah especially you like when in the one of the early seasons of drive to five he's like oh yal
l been on that boat oh yeah yeah he's like 19 or 20 youall been on that boat yeah he just it's just a fact he doesn't care how you feel about it he's just simply stting a fact cuz that's what everyone but for a aies he's like oh [ __ ] tickets on this C we're pretty [ __ ] up up in ours but you you're you're are are father to a very small human being you he is H 13 months going on 14 yeah which I've man I've never been a fan of the like the month things make sense up until a year and then we hav
e a bigger measurement and I'm joining in the month thing because it's the done thing but it just doesn't I'm like is there that much difference between a [ __ ] 13-month old and a [ __ ] 14-month old can I not just say one in a bit oh no it is it is when like it starts to slow down like the amount of Leaps and Bounds start to slow down but yeah at there's a difference between a 12month old and a 13-month old yeah yes well I mean the big difference for us is so I've dragged my son to the other s
ide of the planet because what better way to punish a human being who has no concept of time than with the concept of [ __ ] jet lag so dragged it to Singapore Po in New Zealand we've been in Gold Coast for a week so he's been loving this because he's sort of settled and and and he's he's literally just gone from crawling to walking in the last two days and he's forgotten how to crawl it's and I'm so glad because the whole family's been there to see it and it's like this big you know like step a
nd you're so proud until he just has like a [ __ ] half a banana in each hand and it's then just running towards walls and couches and you're like oh this is worse this is so much worse like the pride lasted about 30 [ __ ] seconds before I'm being like I wonder if there's like any baby Hitman out there I could pay to break my baby's knees just to delay the space there those moments where when you're a younger person and you'd go to I don't know like here we' have the Easter show where you go to
some sort of public place and you know you sit like a fun park or whatever and you see a parent with literally a leash on their child you're like well that's [ __ ] cruel you [ __ ] they're going to grow up a criminal right thank you this is this is one of the me and my partner are made for each other and we see eye to eye on 99% of things nobody's [ __ ] perfect and when it comes to parenting decisions we've discussed everything we've been open to everything and it's been a real pleasure to ra
ise a child with her she believes in leaes and I'm like no man he's not a [ __ ] dog he's not like I'm not I'm not training I get to heal she's like what have you run somewhere and I'm like then we have to chase them like that's the compromise y it's not reduce them to something that licks peanut butter off my butt it's it's wild and I'm talking to you my laptop is on a marble table which is made entirely of marble look at this [ __ ] look like this everywhere like I look when when I got here th
e other day I'm like we are essentially going to have to become a Sonic the Hedgehog bubble around him the entire time he's here cuz you you can't baby proof this joint unless we go somewhere else so there's I I will bet you this in fact if we put Max for stappen and wolf in front of this beautiful marble table and one of this over I'm looking at a crystal little sculpture here that's probably worth a couple hundred bucks like before you said go it would be flying through the air on its way to S
mashing ven would be like I'm ready and wol be looking at you like speed up it's gone point to the fastest thing in the world yeah yeah yeah yeah terrifying it's terrifying you do talk uh about and quite openly when you're on stage you talk about your relationship with your own parents and and gloriously you talk about your relationship with your sister and their relationship with with what happened with your sister have you had the thing now as a dad where you go oh [ __ ] yeah yeah have you ha
d that moment yeah yeah like I remember uh one of the points I had this so my because of my sister's death when I was uh I think I was seven or eight and she was five it means the age gap between me and my brothers is 10 and 12 years and I remember uh we were all in Disney together I'd taken them all over as a thank you for being so very supportive of my career and H when we were there I must have been 21 and my youngest brother was 11 and my other brother was nine and my 11-year-old brother was
throwing this huge [ __ ] tantrum right this huge tantrum I'm like oh my God this so pathetic and at one point H he turns to my dad and says I'm never talking to you again and my dad turns around to me and just goes like I give a [ __ ] all right and I and I just had this crystallizing moment where I was like oh my God I remember all the times I said that to my dad and then I realized the reason I'm laughing at my brother is because he's throwing the exact same [ __ ] tantrum I used to and in t
hat moment realizing how irrational my brother was being and how nice my father was being in the wake of this [ __ ] H I turned to my dad I'm like I'm so sorry like I'm so like I now have this crystallizing don't be wrong you were probably wrong five% of the time but it's not worth bringing those up now that I've seen it in this uh this example the I mean the thing that's really [ __ ] me up is you know when I was writing the show about my sister the first thing I did before I did any stand up a
bout her was I phoned my mom and I said I want to talk about Josie and I want to talk about death on stage but obviously you and me have very different experiences from this whole thing and I don't want to say anything that will upset you or will be hard to listen to and my mom is just like here's three of the funniest [ __ ] stories you've ever heard and they all involved your sister's disability so it they all went well we grew the show into into dark and then and we've always just been able t
o joke about it and laugh about it while still being serious and you know it's respectful you need to be becoming a d and like finally having that moment when you just click on on to how much you love your son and your child like I mean you think you love your partner right and then before my son was here I would say to her every I was like I love you with all my heart I've never loved anyone as much as I've Loved this and then this other being comes across and you still love them but it's dwarf
ed by this love and you you they don't feel better about it because they're experiencing the exact same thing it's given me a new profound respect for my parents because I cannot imagine how [ __ ] difficult it would be to lose a child like when I when I think about what they went through and and and this whole process now and now that I'm here with my son I'm just like I mean you got remember like 50% of parents who lose children lose a child end up divorced because the grief is just so horrifi
c that there's no reconciliation um the fact that they stayed together throughout of the fact that they still have a [ __ ] sense of humor about it blows my mind because at the time when I was just joking about my sister um you know I'd known her for 5 years and it was you know during my for of the years for me to make jokes about it 20 something years later wasn't that difficult it was emotional points and I certain it was it was a form of catharism that I was very grateful for in the end but t
here's just no part of me that think like if my son were to die I would I would ever be able to laugh about it like it would I would retire from Comedy instantly and just go it's it's it's all over so now when I see them talking and laughing about it and they still make jokes about it and they're still funny I'm just like to level of strength I just cannot [ __ ] fathom man it is astounding and it you before I met G who the one who's 19 now I was 10 she was 10 when I showed up I could watch any
[ __ ] video commercial movie you [ __ ] name it right and then I met this kid and she was my girlfriend's kid for about I don't know six weeks maybe eight weeks and then one day I woke up and I was like I would push you out of the way of an oncoming bus see it me I'd be squished and die a horrible minced meat death if me you would live yep and now a [ __ ] insurance ad makes me weep oh I'm right okay so here's my question for you sorry to turn the tables give me your top three lamest cries as a
dad whether it's a movie whether it's an ad something along those lines uh the end of the greatest showman this is me like a like at the premiere I was hosting the [ __ ] thing kid Jackman's there I have to go talk to him afterwards like [ __ ] um oh my God this one happened just the other day we're watching this uh the last of us and it was the exception I want to Buster for anyone there's exceptional third episode where there's a couple and uh there's it's postapocalyptic but one of them turn
s the other and says I was never afraid before I met you and G looks across at me and Audrey and she and I are just blubbering messes and I'm holding her hand she's like you guys are [ __ ] weird oh you understand what that um oh my God and then there's probably a oh and the the bluey episode uh the blue episode space yeah the blue episode space when she comes out of the slippery slide yeah nice man we we've we've got a lot of crossover there I rewatched the third episode of Last of Us for the t
hird time the other day I'm just I'm just sitting at home sobbing going make this a spin-off series give me give me aason just about those guys just I know I know the end I know the start give me [ __ ] everything in between six seasons I'll NE I'll never complain uh the blue episode that gets H the last one that I cried to was H the whale episode where they're both God they're both two hung over to play with their kids and the kids are being annoying and then the mom has this crystalizing momen
t of you know this won't last forever and she does it I'm like cuz man I've had those moments with a son when it's you know I've been a like for 4 hours and you're like I don't want to do anything and then just his big stupid smile comes up and you're like what what what do you want what is it the moon how many [ __ ] moons I'll go to a different planet and we'll get you a different [ __ ] Moon um Moana regularly makes me [ __ ] so the the way I punish myself on tour like whenever I've been away
for a while CU I think it's very healthy I call it bleeding the radiator which is like to just cry by yourself during difficult times and if you can't find something to cry at like somebody's being mean to you or somebody dies I always go on to YouTube and it used to be soldiers coming home to their kids that would always [ __ ] get me and the new one that I'm so [ __ ] into is H kids asking their stepdads to adopt them oh my God I yeah look I'm not going to lie mate as a stepdad I have watched
one or two of them and oh oh man there's there's one and I know it's I was raised in a house where it was okay to cry and my dad never made me feel ashamed of it I don't know where I got it from but for the first 20 years of my life I really did try I saw it as weakness I saw it as something I didn't want to and I think it's because deep down I knew how emotional I was and I was like we got [ __ ] if we can't cap this right we got to [ __ ] limit how much it comes out and then H so for me the w
henever I see manly men crying like really big blogs crying it reduces me to [ __ ] nothing there's this big guy he must be 6'2 he's got tattoos up to his necks he's killed two men I can't prove this but he's definitely killed two men and his 15-year-old stepdaughter can this thing where she just I've oh man he but like it's it's it's gutal crying it's so like she has to conso him so good so good straight into my in in in your previous work I know we keep going on about but it's an interesting t
hing to come back to because it makes you you know we have this opportunity as dads we get this opportunity uh because kids don't do what we tell them they just do what we show them and then we have to go oh [ __ ] [ __ ] I'm if I want that person to stop doing that thing I'm going to have to stop doing that thing because I'm annoyed at it because I don't like that part about myself and is our opportunity to to stop a pattern of behavior that may have been unwillingly passed down through through
generations right you've you've talked in the past about about love you you quite famously at jigsaw you spoke a lot about love yeah and the loving were 100% of of someone the the kid stuff cuz you really have no choice You' got no choice to love that person that big do you no and it's it's for me the thing I found I mean I've wanted to be a dad for a very long time as long as I can remember uh any amateur therapists out there will be able to explain to you it's because my sister died when I wa
s young and I didn't deal with her in a proper way and I just then Outsource all the up I was missing into younger people um and I I have a very good relationship with my younger cousins who were born after my sister died whenever my friends had kids I was all over them but even then even though I was so desperate to be a dad when my fiance told me she was cored you I I don't know if this is true for everyone but I found myself in really really brutal with myself and it's not just like am I read
y for this is the right time but like I'm about to pass this on right to somebody I love unconditionally is that a fair thing to [ __ ] do because man there's no part of my fiance that I don't want my son to have right that I wouldn't be with her if I didn't see her as as perfect and love every part of her but and she loves every part of me even the parts I [ __ ] hate but I still hate the parts of me that I hate that she [ __ ] forgives and there's bits where I'm just like he's such a happy boy
right and that's his mom right that's that's her I wake up in the morning and I challenge the world to give me a [ __ ] reason to smile whereas she wakes up being like Oh another day another smile like I wanted to follow in her well not necessarily follow in her footsteps like it's that thing of like they're like little room buts I you just want to sort push them out there and then just see which direction they go in and the one thing I've heard which was the the greatest bit of advice or expla
nation I had for any other parents and not from all parents cuz I think some parents don't realize it but the best parents I know are like just be aware that your kid comes out the way they're going to come out the amount of impact you can have on them is so [ __ ] minimal right in like sorry personality wise of course you can raise them in a horrible environment where it's toxic if you give them love and safety whatever H they're still going to be who they are and you can fight against that and
you can try and push them in the directions of your life that you feel that you failed at and then hopefully this younger versally you will erase the memory of your failures or you can just sit back and go okay let's see what you want and that's what I find so exciting like it's like being a it's like being a reverse archaeologist and of dusting off something that's millions of years old you're just slowly discovering this little person that you met like I'm um here's a question for you what wa
s the wolf was your son's name sorry Wolfie Wolf Gang yeah W Wolf Wolf Gang um what was the first part of his personality that you saw through and you were cognizant or you were like okay that's that's not just baby that's him um I'm I think it was a lot like his sister when he he laughed at a fart yeah man he was very little cuz his sister did the same thing uh when she was quite young I'm told but he laughed at a fart really early like his own F or someone else's yeah his fart he had a fart an
d he laughed I'm like farts are funny and we come out we like we come out of the womb fire loud noises snakes or spiders sometimes farts are funny like and he was him just like putting it to going and I watched him giggle this you know eight or 10 week old giggle like holy [ __ ] there it is man and you just and you just feel your heart doing that thing that the grinches does where you're like it can't get any bigger you're going to break my ribs at this point it is and and the the thing is and
I know this with G is that every uh so we talked about earlier like 13 months are different to 16 months or different to whatever like every couple weeks you get you know there's a new Milestone when they're really little but that doesn't stop you know with G even though she's now 19 she's still a new person about every eight weeks she all she's a new new operating system or a new variant about every 8 to 10 weeks and and it's amazing it's amazing it takes a lot of adjustment uh and it's it's be
autiful it's beautiful to see you're constantly surprised and adjusting and Amazed by this this thing that keeps happening and it's it's far more obvious when they're little like I missed him for 4 days I think and he came back down here you know when you put your phone down overnight to charge you pick it up in the morning oh wow it does emojis that move cool um he like had a software update when I three days later he shows up and like [ __ ] dude you're talking about constructs of time that do
n't exist and now you're referring to something what who It's [ __ ] amazing and that's the same with G it just keeps happening you know and it's it's astounding but the job is to is just be there for all of that you can't there's some mates of my life I've known since I was eight and there's other mates of I've been playing a poker game that's been running since 2004 so the same like 10 11 guys that I see kind of quite regularly every week which I'm very grateful for because they're not guys I
work with right and one of the best pieces of advice when I was first a stepdad I was grumbling about it of them said listen mate yes she's going to ignore you but it's your job to be there for her to ignore [ __ ] you [ __ ] right there buddy yeah got itks mate yeah and it it also takes you back to the [ __ ] moments when you were a [ __ ] grateful little teenager and your parents were trying to be nice to you and you're just throwing all these like I remember like there's something that happen
s to you in your teenage years where I don't think it I don't think you lose all empathy but like whether it's ego that comes into it or whether it is like a diminishment empathy I remember there being a point in my life when I would have I would never argue with my mother uh because my mom was the scary one and the reason she was scary is because like all good horror movies is she would never show you why you should be scared she would only ever hint at it Dad would tell you the punishments rig
ht if you do this again you're going to lose your Xbox and then you do the mental calculations you're like I can go a week without the [ __ ] Xbox and I know yelling at you annoying you so I'm just going to [ __ ] mom would very much be like stop doing that I'd be like why and she would raise an eyebrow and you'd be like but but my poor father like I remember this this the worst thing I think I've ever did in my [ __ ] teenage years when I was 13 and my younger brother was three we buted heads b
ecause I was going through puberty and all the [ __ ] chemical reactions that come with that up in your brain and he loved his big brother and didn't know how to get my attention and the best way to get my attention was to annoy me because then it would get a reaction and it's not the loving reaction the classic it's [ __ ] it's the Hotel California of Brothers It's brilliant yeah and my dad just keeps trying to explain this very simple concept to me that if I'm just nice to him he'll be nice an
d with time and then we'll have a better [ __ ] relationship but I'm not willing to do that cuz I'm subborn and a teenager and my dad all the time all the [ __ ] time explain to me I was about 14 years old when in the back of the car and my brother's knowing me he's just trying to get my attention and my dad's just basically yelling at me to stop yelling at him wonder where I learned it from and and in the car to my father I say I wish he was dead to a man that literally lost his man my [ __ ] f
orehead hit the back of his seat as the brakes were slammed on right and he just opens it door he doesn't grab me he opens the door he says take your seat Bel off and I take my seat Bel off and he takes me to the side of the [ __ ] road and he just goes I love you unconditionally under no circumstance ever say anything like that ever again you have no idea the power of your words you have no idea how much and it was in that moment that it really crystallized for me I was like oh [ __ ] man somet
imes when you say things in Anger to Heart people once the anger [ __ ] recedes the pain of what you've said doesn't and it was really important like God God I soed I sopped on car the whole the second I realized I cried all the way home he [ __ ] let me cry like oh I [ __ ] play Xbox and later on in life man when it comes to Comedy like I do remember that that that lesson and standard which is you know it's I I believe that we should be we can say whatever we want we should be allowed to say wh
atever the [ __ ] we want nothing is off limits uh nothing should never be spoken about but with that truth comes a huge level of responsibility and a level of empathy that's [ __ ] required that when you're going to do this to go right if there are the chances that my words are going to [ __ ] hurt people I've got to make sure that I'm not hurting anyone that's been hurt repeatedly before let's not [ __ ] punch that words let's make sure that if people AR offended by it it's because they misund
erstand it and they don't understand [ __ ] comedy or finally if I am upsetting people it's people I wish were dead anyway in our country of Australia and I'm sure it's the same uh in in Europe certainly in the seven America is that there's cancellation you know and no can ever [ __ ] come back and this idea that once you've [ __ ] up or you've said something that someone was once offended to once you go if the the person truly and honestly says oh wow honestly I'd never thought that that was ac
tually now you put it that way that's a terrible thing that I said I'm so deeply sorry I'm going to work very hard to never do that again that is never the end of it even if they've said that and committed to it and they live the rest of their life with those values in their heart it will be you know that's who they are I've got I've got two points to this one is agreeing with you one is disagreeing with you when it comes to people being offended by Karm and the apology will never be enough beca
use when people want you to apologize for standup coming jokes what's happening is you as someone they don't know have upset them and affected their life in a way where they felt powerless because they were in an audience who said something that they couldn't respond back to it it made them feel like [ __ ] they stent for a couple of days so when they want you to apologize you're right you should just be able to say I've learned I've I've grown I acknowledge that it was wrong and I will endeavor
to be infinitely bet from hero going forward that should always be accepted as the and if people don't want to forgive that that's fine that's understandable I get that but that's not enough for people because they want you to feel as powerless as you felt in the moment when you upset them it's bend the [ __ ] knee gravel on your knees and that's why I don't believe in apologizing for a comedy I believe in acknowledging going forward in this idea that you can't come back from Comedy Bill Cosby'
s not in jail Louis CK is on tour Jimmy Carr has been canceled 79 [ __ ] times which suggests to me he's never been [ __ ] cancelled in the first place the the problem with cancellation this this idea of it especially in comedy is I believe there are I believe regular people can be cancelled I believe you can work in a [ __ ] office job somebody can find something you tweeted about 15 years ago we can cause an outroar online and you can lose your job because of that that goes away when you're a
comedian for the following reasons less than 10% of any population in the world watches stand-up comedy in America where stand-up comedy in its modern form was born is perfected and his soci less than 30 million people a year consume or watch live standup comedy in anyway so it's therefore reasonable to assume that every country beneath America watches less comedy than that when a comedian gets canel the joke that is and by the way we we need it to be this we need it to be that popular right it'
s not music it's not [ __ ] Sports what we do isn't funny unless we know it would upset everyone else outside that's the [ __ ] secret that's the [ __ ] secret they have to be outside so that we can sit in this room say these horrible things and be like but we couldn't say out there that's what it is that's the [ __ ] taboo and to pretend that this friction hasn't existed forever which is people saying stuff and Society rubbing back talking about what you can and can't say we're always going to
have these types of arguments when we do these jokes that offend people the joke is always clipped up it's always taken out of context it's always reduced to to the worst bits of what it is and then the 90% of people who do not understand a lick of [ __ ] comedy have never seen it in their lives they missed the old school days of the 70s comedians just saying the nword on stage and doing the old [ __ ] Chinese jokes that were all [ __ ] heard it's those people being like well you can't say this
you can't can't say that but what I don't agree with this idea of comedians being cancelled is when that happens I can't imagine how awful it must feel to have the internet yell at you to kill yourself for 3 weeks out of [ __ ] time but a bunch of people who were never going to come and see you live are still never going to come and see you live so absolutely nothing has changed there zero loss n zero [ __ ] loss but now a bunch of people who didn't hear of you who understand comedy and are forw
ard they're going to do their own research they're not just going to listen and they now know that you say controversial things that piss off the other 90% And they're like well we got to give I got to go watch this guy this guy [ __ ] he he rubs people the wrong [ __ ] way no feel free to clip this in for when I do get cancelled and I'm like it's the mob it's the mob coming to get me but I just I I because I do love the way you put that because I think we have something similar I found a lot of
affinity when I heard you know the way you talk about your parents the gags they would say about tending your sister's grave site uh both my parents were doctors and the only way they could get past you know telling another parent of a 10-year-old no this is chronic and no there's no coming back from this is to go how's your day honey oh I had a such and such and such today funny looking kid you know they had to bleeding the radio man like it's they had to say it to each other because otherwise
the just the grimness of it and like even mes like it's a buddy of mine he was lamenting he he became a doctor but he lamented they changed the laws in Australia where family was able to access the secret Comm well the confidential Communications between doctors about patients and say for example in a juvenal cancer W the doctor would write flk at the top right funny looking kid so the next registar the next registar Who's probably only in their early 30s or late 20s who's probably got small ch
ildren of their own who's staring at this kid his 6-year-old or seven-year-old child with no hair with a [ __ ] zipper scar on their skull and just is dealing with this horror that we were speaking about before has a brief moment of going oh yeah yeah and it's it's these are the types of book that are so hard to explain to other people and the reason comedy is only popular to 10% of the population is because it requires a special type of trauma in your life at any point to get into dark comedy l
ike something bad has to happen any stage of your life no matter what the [ __ ] thing it's something that during your informative years when your brain is growing and developing it's slightly stunted by this massive [ __ ] thing that throws you for sex and it's a coping mechanism and that's what some people don't understand because for them coping mechanism is crying and there's people out there who they cry they feel better they feel sad another two days later they cry they feel bad whereas th
ere's the rest of us that where something is s happens we cry and we cry and we cry and then we don't feel any [ __ ] better and then we just and then we run out of tears and we just feel [ __ ] empty and then there's just nothing there then and then I always remember the first the first laugh after something bad happens to you is always the most powerful laugh in the world because there is nothing more powerful than laughing in the face of something that is beating the [ __ ] out of you well fo
r you it's the I I often when people ask about what is that I do for a job I do many different things but I like to think that I myob I only have one job Daniel and that's to make people feel less alone that's it yeah you know and when you're on stage and you say that they laugh you feel less alone you're like ah there's another sick [ __ ] like me here that's nice they hear you say it and go I've thought that but I've never had the guts to say it out loud that's nice yeah and there's a two of y
ou in this huge room have this moment yeah and there a real B it's I mean you've nailed it there the amount of times you walk on stage with a new joke that you know is close to the [ __ ] bone but it comes from a place of truth in your heart and you know this is an awful thing I thought I hope I'm not alone in it and you offer it into the world any laughs that come back you're like I'm not a psychopath I'm not a psychopath or there are way more Psychopaths than we ever thought because they say i
t's killing I don't know I'd like to think that we're generally really good people and and or as as a general rule in my community at least of Australia we're mostly like as a general R we're pretty [ __ ] good people just these these tiny little fringes act on the [ __ ] that you know most of us kind of just think when me and I was I did a tour uh around India three weeks ago and my best friend and support guy called Kai humre they tried to prepare me they were just like man India is it's very
different H culturally morally um socially like just it's it's going to be a [ __ ] culture shock and and it is I mean it's amazing food is unbelievable there's a level of friendliness that doesn't really compete with anywhere else in the rest of the world but also the friendliness is feels horrible because it's to white people like it's and we're we're we're there and we're being stared at and they're not staring in bad ways but they're just there's not that many [ __ ] honkies walking around b
angaluru so they just [ __ ] star again there's so many points when you know I'm I'm feeling awkward because I'm a [ __ ] Rich successful white man who's gone to India and the last time we did that we weren't very good about it and it's sort of seeing after the years of Oppression and and then and then demanding that these people catch up with the 21st century it's the thing that always my mom works for the h she's an environmental consultant she's a leading expert in the world on Mercury emissi
ons and greenhouse gases so her job at the moment is trying to make India help reduce their car emissions but the problem is the Western world is like India is one of the most responsible for global warming in the world and we need to change that but we still want them to make everything for us for no [ __ ] money can you guys can you guys cleanly make shoes for3 is that an option why can't you so yeah we're out there and all of the stuff is hting me all the [ __ ] same time and it's a lot and I
don't want to go on stage and criticize the country for two reasons one India is one of the very few countries in the world where cancel culture and comedy actually exists as in like before you go on stage they're like do not insult the government do not mention that you cannot insult the government do not insult any religion do not mention that you cannot insult any religion if you do any of these things there will be police on stage you'll be dragged away and it doesn't matter how white your
[ __ ] skin is you're spending two nights in [ __ ] prison right I I met Indian comedians who cannot leave their state because if they land in another state that's it [ __ ] done for so we're in this [ __ ] situation and so I'm not willing to do any of these things on stage cuz I I don't want to be with my two days of experience say something flipping and then upset some people and I also want to come back to India because on the market so every awful thought I had I would just have to pull kigh
t and we would just say horrific [ __ ] to each other in the horrific sh that if anyone around us was to hear us say it they would have every right to beat us within an inch of their lives right the whole time they'd be beating me up I'd be like yeah no yeah but not the face I've got a show tonight the rest is good the rest is it's fair mate it's [ __ ] Fair we've been talking a lot about parenting we're talking about you know the boundaries around around comedy what's funny what's not funny the
re's something about you that I I would love to share or have get your thoughts on because not everyone's going to be a standup comic not everyone's going to be on stage but everyone's going to have a chance to help a younger person in their career you were 16 when you got your mom kept a eye out for you and just happened to pass uh Community by the name of Frankie Bole told him about you they said well get it coming right can you can you speak to the idea of mentorship or the idea of giving a k
id a chance with with the Frankie boil thing originally you know my M would say said to him my son wants to be a comedian can you answer some questions for and Frank he was like yeah of course and gave my mom his email address and I must have sent him 30 [ __ ] pages of 150 questions like being like like and then when you do this in a Jew why do you do this and what's the best way to deal with a laugh do you roll over the laugh or do you let them say all of these things amazing for like three da
ys he doesn't reply and then he just goes Jesus Christ that was long just come and visit me like this it's just going to be easier and he brought me through to The Fringe and he took me to a bunch of his shows he took me to a bunch of other shows he introduced me to other comedians he introduced me to The Comedy Club where I I I did my first ever [ __ ] gig and I was so immensely grateful for that because in a job where I imagine a lot of people especially if I do and I'm one of the most arrogan
t comedians in the [ __ ] world I still suffer [ __ ] hella impostor syndrome like at every stage in this [ __ ] job like there's just you look around at all these other [ __ ] talented people in this job that you've wanted to do your entire life and then you weren't doing it and you're just like at what point are people going to work out that I don't belong here and I'm a [ __ ] charlatan because he'd introduced me to so many older comedians who I then ended up [ __ ] gigging with it really jus
t like paved this way where I had such a good support network and it's something I've really tried to remember going forward because I wouldn't have the confidence especially and not even the early career I had unless for him for for Frankie that is to try and be like right whenever I see new comedians it's even if I think they're [ __ ] [ __ ] because so many new comedians are [ __ ] because of course we were all unbelievably dog [ __ ] when we started this so bad of course for years yeah and t
he thing is I'll watch a man if I watch a comedian who's been going for 10 years and they [ __ ] no sympathy no [ __ ] empathy [ __ ] you get off stage and stop taking stage time off the younger Comics who are actually developing you've not written a new 20 in 5 years off you [ __ ] [ __ ] this job ain't for you anymore make some space and so even when I see comedians young comedians who [ __ ] eat [ __ ] in front of me the first thing I do is go backstage and I'm like doesn't matter doesn't mat
ter that's the best thing that could have happened to you that's the best thing that could have happened to you because that's the worst thing that's ever going to happen and you and here you are look you went out stage and you ate nobody left buddy I was in that audience nobody left not even the bar staff and they love when people die but they weren't even laughing at your death because your death was so [ __ ] sad and brutal that it made them sad it was the one but and they're there I'm like b
ut it's over it's over and here you [ __ ] are and you're ging tomorrow and you are going to do it because that's how we [ __ ] learn and grow that's an amazing pep talk and that's not I don't think there has given enough in anything you know whether I don't know whether you want to be a Formula One driver you want to be a you know a bicycle Rider when you want to be a carpenter whatever just get that the first while of you doing it is going to suck and you sucking is a part of you being awesome
yeah man and man it's so much better to suck at the start because it's so much easier to see improvements right first like man let's say you're a [ __ ] whittler and you're trying to [ __ ] Whittle you got a littleit log and you're trying to make a cat and then halfway through you chop off the [ __ ] tail and you're like all right well I guess I guess it's a badger then and you [ __ ] whle it some more and then you chop off two of the legs and you're like [ __ ] I've just got to Whitt off the o
ther two now and now it's a turtle now it's just a [ __ ] Turtle it was meant to be a cat to the next time you do that maybe only one leg stays on that M that's don't me wrong it's still not a [ __ ] cat and God your shitty carpentry but you can literally compare it to the other one and see it grow when you're really good at something it becomes so much harder to work out where your flaws are where you're failing down and also with the second you become good at something ego gets involved and eg
o makes you blind to your [ __ ] flaws so it's harder to become better later on so if you can teach yourself early on how to notice your flaws and how to improve upon them the best way to do that it will set you up for the success which you will get and that success ruin you for 2 to 3 years because because but that's there just comes a point in success when you're good at stuff when you're just like your brain kicks in because we're insul we go well I'm I'm clearly one of the [ __ ] best at thi
s and yeah and there was a time in my career you know [ __ ] four years ago where I was like I'm one of the [ __ ] best at this I didn't work on the show and then surprise surprise I didn't like the show at the end of it it was still good but I'd spent a year doing a show that I didn't really enjoy performing while also putting zero effort into improving the show and therefore my enjoyment of it whereas and when I look back at that show I [ __ ] hate it but it doesn't mean anything I hate all my
shows and looking back at it now when I'm doing this show now I'm able to be like oh my God that joke got better yes than yesterday and not because it got a bigger laugh but because I giggle to myself at one point like there's so many times on stage I find the comedian's brain to be so fascinating that you can do the same joke 90 times in a [ __ ] row you can listen to it back you can sit there with your other friends or Comedians and you're like I think there's a tag here but I can't seem to f
ind out where the tag is and they'll give you some you'll try something they'll really work and then for whatever [ __ ] reason on the 97th performing of that [ __ ] show You'll Go on stage you'll have a [ __ ] drink and your brain will just be like oh by the way there's a massive call back to the start of the show that you've never seen before and you're like what the [ __ ] like where was where was this in the previews you piece of [ __ ] it's an interesting gig that you've you've chosen you k
now I mean my my favorite movie quote used to be uh we're going to need a bigger boat it's now H and Roth to Michael Corone Godfather Part Two this is the business we've chosen uh when it's like this is this [ __ ] gig you know I chose this but you particularly and I've got close mates who are standups here's this thing I will work my [ __ ] balls off to do and create and then the moment that this time of year I will tear this up MH and I'll start again at zero yeah what does that constant going
back to an empty page going back to facing yourself with I've got nothing what does that do for you as an artist what does it do for you as someone who's going know in the business of you you're paying your children you're putting food in the fridge you know everything's at steak with an empty page what does it do for you doing it again and again and again it makes you infinitely and unfathomably better than your peers um the edmer festival which I've been doing since I was uh 17 years old I di
d not want to do my first hour show I wanted to wait three year 3 years until I had five years of material that I could perfect material that I could condense into a 1our show and then put that out and that's what a lot of comedians do at these comedy festivals they wait until they've got this thing this this amount of material that they can [ __ ] condense my agent which I always love her for Marina she was like you're doing a [ __ ] you're you're doing it at the age of 18 you're doing it and I
wrote the show I think I toured it for like [ __ ] maybe five two dates afterwards cuz that's all I could do and then I was back in the clubs and she was like you're doing the French next year and I'm like but it took me 3 years to write that one and she's like cool WR a second [ __ ] show and again I pushed against it cuz other people who were at the same stage of career as me they were waiting they were doing the clubs they were building up material they were getting a better set they weren't
becoming better comedians they were they were getting a better set yeah yeah right they were perfecting the jokes and not themselves and not their [ __ ] occupation and how they dealt with it now my first four shows at the fridge probably weren't that good do you do you know anyone who remembers my first four [ __ ] shows I don't remember my first [ __ ] four shows I couldn't [ __ ] joke in but what I can tell you is I learned how to write a new show every [ __ ] year right and doing those four
shows that went to [ __ ] nothing it build me an audience it build me people that saw and then when I go back eventually things start improving I start getting better because I'm able to write a new hour every [ __ ] year and that's the [ __ ] standard and that's the [ __ ] game and I'm at the front of the [ __ ] pack here and then all my peers all the ones that were like we're going to wait we're going to wait they waited five six years to do their first festivals and I could name them to you
and you wouldn't recognize any of their [ __ ] names this is about a work epic and it's so easy to forget that since this is such a fun job there's so many times while doing this that it doesn't feel like work but you've got to remember that that feeling is a privilege it is a privilege to love what you do it is so uncommon for people to wholeheartedly love their occupations so give it [ __ ] everything or lose it and don't complain when you it's the the idea of working not only making yourself
a better com making yourself a better but you're are you're you're getting better at getting yourself better as well and just committing to that if you were to give me 5 years on the circuit right I guarantee you I would have a 30 minute routine that would blow apart any gig anywhere in the [ __ ] world but that's not what gets people people to love your standup right yeah and I I've only learned this in later years and it wasn't something I intended to learn it's just through the the the succes
s that I'm so very grateful to have succeeded dark and jigsaw and X are my [ __ ] three specials that for some reason hit some part the [ __ ] Zeitgeist and spoke to people in ways that I never had any intention of it speaking to them and what I learned through the [ __ ] success of that is man I can show you off the top of my head 50 comedians who have better 20 minute routines than all three of those specials but nobody's talking about their set an hour after it's done because it just [ __ ] m
ade them laugh right when you give them something else when there're something to think about to comprehend to mull over and swell around the mouth of your mind to to come to turns then something that challenges you man imagine imagine watching a comedian that you love for 50 minutes and then for 10 minutes they they say something that you morally politically and fundamentally [ __ ] disagree on and and you just there and it's and it's aning you you [ __ ] you're going to [ __ ] remember that wa
y more people people don't come and see me I don't believe because of any particular single routine that I've done they come to see me because every two or three years they're like I wonder what is new opinions are I want to know what his thoughts are they're not they're not here for the product which is my Mater material they're here for the production they're here for the the the Creator they trust the source and whatever comes out and that is man I wish I'd realized that sooner in my career I
wish somebody had explained that to me um because it sounds so horrible and capitalistic to say something like you've got to turn yourself into a brand but brand is just the best way to describe the the thing that I'm talking about and that is if you're if you're not a sketch artist if you're not improv if you're not character if you're not Musical and all these stuff it's you that's what you're sing right there we all know how [ __ ] talented the rest of the [ __ ] circuit is right the only an
d there's some amazing [ __ ] gag writers out there some of the best gag writers I know or some of my closest friends and they'll not get far in life because there's nothing of them on stage the jokes are perfect there's zero [ __ ] fat on those jokes they are beautiful to listen to look like they're so fun to [ __ ] perform but there's it's a it's a fleeing thought in the [ __ ] brain I've done shows which are you know not that [ __ ] brilliant compared to my other shows but because I put a lit
tle bit of myself in there to give the audience to [ __ ] relate to to let them you know while they're disagreeing with everything I'm saying there's some part of me that does resonate with them and that might not be what I'm saying but it's the passion of which I'm saying something that the the the logic that I'm using to get there that's what brings them think I want to see what Daniel SLO thinks next not I want to see his next [ __ ] joke his next you're and you're absolutely right they they
want to get that feeling they want to like last time I went and saw this guy I I felt I'm going to say it again like you felt less alone and I want I want to have that feeling again even though now I feel less alone about something that I'm quite conflicted by uh yeah I'm dealing with it um but I'm I'm quite mindful of time and I'm also quite mindful that you sir I'm not on stage for another two hours have the timeable you're like but I [ __ ] am like foolishly have decided to do a topical news
show which I'm writing every day um well done giving yourself that deadling good boy mate when I did my first live show I booked the venue and put the tickets on sale before I wrote a word brilliant brilliant does the job yeah yeah does the [ __ ] job the guillotine method got to do it and it's the same with this like no matter [ __ ] what at 7:15 tonight the vibe tape's going to stop my intro song is going to play and I'm G to have give a show and that's every day and it's heapes work but it's
awesome I just do I want to say one like it's the last thing I'll say d is like my my deepest deepest hopes that you can possibly come up with a better explanation of life for your son than your father gave you with the jigsaw puzzle yeah but if if you don't I reckon that one's going to work I'm sure as [ __ ] stealing it to tell Wolfie you're amazing mate thank you so much for sharing your time with me mate and big thanks to my who helped us re um re schedule this she's absolute Pro really appr
eciate it yeah she's a [ __ ] rotweiler but she's my rotweiler [Music]
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